


11 Miles

by Hekate1308



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, M/M, Post-Season/Series 12, human!Cas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 12:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12058779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hekate1308/pseuds/Hekate1308
Summary: Their new case took Dean down a road he had never travelled before.





	11 Miles

**Author's Note:**

> Found some cool creepy pasta (called 11 Miles Game), decided to turn it into a destiel fic. Enjoy!

“Give us the low-down again, Sammy“.

“Like I said, there’s not much to it. People say there’s an eleven-mile stretch of road that just... appears now and then, and it seems to be haunted”.

“Appears to be? What exactly did the witnesses say?”

“That’s just the point. It’s all over the place. Gold coins, rose petals, just pieces of paper floating in the air... and that’s only the beginning. That’s when they get on the road”.

“Wait, so they see weird stuff floating around and think _This_ _is a nice place to check out_ ”.

“They might be compelled to take the road” Cas observed.

As always, Dean soaked up every word. Ever since their friend had come back from the dead human once and for all, he’d carefully studied him to make sure he didn’t have any regrets, and to his surprise, there was no indication Cas missed his wings. He’d complain that he couldn’t heal anyone or fly wherever he wanted, but that was about it.

And he’d decided to stay in the bunker and hunt with them, seemingly happy enough.

Still, Dean wouldn’t relax. He’d lived long enough to see every good thing in his life being snatched away (repeatedly) and he wasn’t keen on Cas leaving again.

Sometimes, he wondered why he was so eager to keep hi – the angel in their lives, but never for long. He was pretty sure the answer was not one he wanted to hear.

Sam had tried to talk to him about it a few times, but he’d shut him down as quickly as he could.

Cas was like his brother, he’d said it again and again, so often that it had to be true, right?

“Dean, the road” Sam admonished him and he realized he’d been staring at Cas’ profile. Again.

He swallowed and concentrated on his driving.

They arrived in the small town the road was apparently leading away from at sunset and decided there was little to be done until the next morning, so they just relaxed in their rooms. They watched some silly sci-fi movie on cable and made fun of it constantly, and Dean did not move closer to Cas during the evening, accidentally or intentionally, because why should he?

This time around, he and Cas shared a room and Sam had one on his own.

Normally, the presence of either his brother or his best friend helped him to relax and sleep better than he had in years, but tonight, he found himself tossing and turning and staring at Cas, who was sleeping peacefully, the moonlight painting his face with the old glow of his lost Grace.

He couldn’t stay. He needed to get out.

He’d just take a drive, come back and neither Cas nor Sam had to know he’d even been gone. Perfect.

As always, Baby’s rumbling comforted him as he drove away, keeping her slow for the moment. There was no reason to annoy the neighbours.

And yet, as he tried to escape them, all his thoughts seemed to centre on Cas; his laugh, the crinkles around his eyes, his brains, his –

This could lead nowhere. So he could appreciate it when someone looked hot; he’d always known some guys were pretty attractive. That didn’t mean he was – he was –

Rose petals. There were rose petals drifting through the air, gliding towards the right side of the road.

And there was a turn onto a different road.

Dean would later be unable to recall how or why he’d made the decision to drive down this particular road; all he knew was that he was suddenly driving down a stretch he certainly hadn’t noticed when they’d arrived, going exactly 30 because it felt right.

It was then that he realized it was getting colder. He frowned. Sure, the days were slowly inching towards October, but certainly the temperature wouldn’t drop that quickly?

He turned on the heat and glanced at the sky and all he saw was stars.

More stars than he’d ever seen, even on those nights he and Sammy would stop the car to watch them.

And he realized he was in trouble.

It had been cloudy when he’d left then motel. Clouds didn’t disappear without a trace just like that.

And then it clicked.

He wasn’t just driving down a road.

He was on _the_ road. The one he was supposed to be investigating.

Eleven miles, the witnessed had all claimed without a fail. Eleven miles.

Quickly he went through all information they’d found. He couldn’t stop the car, or it would be found trashed and abandoned in the morning, Dean himself vanished into the night; there would be no reception on his cell phone if he tried to call anyone, and turning on the radio would only produce static.

He had to concentrate on what he’d been thinking of before turning into the road, and on driving carefully and not dying, of course.

He’d heard the last part was the hardest one.

Weirdly enough, he didn’t feel in the least threatened or even worried. It might have been some weird highway mojo working on him, but somehow, he suspected that it was something different.

While it had been nice to settle down in the bunker, he’d been raised on the road. Americans open streets were as much his home as Baby.

He smiled and thought of Cas, the memory of his best friend comforting him as always.

Yes, he could beat this.

More rose petals... and the temperature had dropped again. Good he’d just overhauled Baby again.

The road took a sudden turn, a huge branch blocking most of it, and only his driving skills saved him.

There. He could do this. He was a damn good driver, after all.

And that was certainly an advantage. The twists and turns and obstacles kept coming, and Dean managed to avoid them all (minus one or two potholes, it had just been too dark to see them properly).

Still, Baby was driving on, and so was Dean.

The temperature dropped again. Now he could make out silhouettes beside the road, in the trees, but they had not found a single account of someone who’d looked closely at them and been able to tell the tale, so Dean did his best to ignore them.

He was on the fourth mile now.

The silhouettes were beginning to whisper to him, words he couldn’t quite understand, and it was terribly distracting, since the road was only growing more and more dangerous.

To shut them out, he thought of Cas. The day he’d let him drive Baby for the first time as a human. He’d insisted it would feel different than when Cas had still been an angel, and afterwards, he’d agreed with him.

Yeah. That was a good memory. And as he thought of it, the whispers grew fainter.

Thinking more about Cas it was, then.

If there was one thing that came easier to him than driving, it was that.

_Showing Cas how to cook._

_Watching Star Wars with him because “I don’t care Metadouche pumped all that knowledge into your melon, you still need to experience it”._

_Fighting through a vampire nest side by side._

He’d all but stopped hearing the voices when they ceased abruptly and he drove into a clearing, the lining of trees on his left giving way to a large lake. The full moon (even though he was sure there’d been none when he’d started the car) was shining brightly, so brightly he wouldn’t have needed his headlights, but he kept them on regardless. Something, maybe instinct, told him not to look at the moon for too long and he thought of Cas and kept driving.

Entering the sixth mile now, he realized. Halfway done.

The lake vanished as suddenly as it had come, and the moon and stars with it.

Now the only light he had where his headlights, and they kept flickering on and off, despite them being in peak condition only yesterday.

_Think of Cas. Keep driving._

For another mile, it worked.

And then the radio turned itself on and a voice started speaking without infliction.

It was so bland that Dena couldn’t even tell if it belonged to a man or a woman, but the words hit home.

_He will leave, you know. You’ve got nothing to offer him; Castiel will leave you._

He could see it now, in his mind, him getting up one day to find Cas packing or already gone –

_And then Sam will go, too. You know he will. He’s always wished for a normal life, and he won’t allow you to take his last chance away from him –_

“This was only ever supposed to be temporary” Sam said pointedly, “And quite frankly, thirteen years on the road with you have been enough for a life time. Don’t expect me to call – “

This wasn’t normal. He wasn’t just imagining these things, he was experiencing them, almost like memories –

His grip on the steering wheel tightened. He couldn’t allow himself to be distracted.

_Think of Cas singing as he tends to the garden he created behind the bunker. Don’t listen to The Voice._

And indeed, the memory of Cas singing _Ramble On_ banished the thoughts of him leaving from his head.

Mile Seven.

He didn’t know what he had been expecting – most witnesses had glossed over this part – but it certainly wasn’t the voices from before returning to scream at him.

Or someone breathing “Almost there” into his ear.

He didn’t turn around. These weren’t normal ghosts, he could feel it in his bones.

“Who are you?” he demanded, ignoring the shouts of the others.

“Ask me who I was”.  

He snorted.

“Fine, Charles Dickens, who were you?”

“Mindy”.

Mindy Clayton. She was one of those who had gone missing.

“You want me to join you”.

It wasn’t a question.

“Everything hurts. This is all we have left”.

Dean thought of Cas, how good he’d looked during their last salt and burn case (no, it wasn’t creepy).

Mindy kept whispering but Dean ignored her.

Another mile gone, and Mindy vanished, although Dean soon realized the figures were as close as ever and occasionally appearing in the backseat.

_Don’t look. No matter what you do, don’t look._

The road began to take very sharp turns, forcing Dean to concentrate more and more on not crashing the car while maniacal laughter could be heard outside and hands clawed at the window.

The heating had turned itself off, and it was bitterly cold. The headlights now and then stopped functioning completely.

His continual practice as a driver was all that saved him on several occasions.

On the ninth mile, Baby stalled.

Something in Dean – sounding suspiciously like Cas – told him to close his eyes, so he did and tried to start the car again.

The voices were screaming inside his head.

He’ll be one of us!

He really thought he could win!

Get him out!

The windows began to break under the pressure of the spirits, but Dean still didn’t open his eyes. He restarted the car and punched it.

He soared down the road as the voices fell quiet and he could only glimpse the figures watching him silently from the side of the road.

Something was coming, that much was certain.

He’d been right.

Just as he entered the eleventh mile – almost there, almost – the car stalled again, and yet it kept moving.

What was he supposed to do now?

_Dean._

Cas. That was Cas’ voice.

He could see a growing red light ahead.

Close your eyes and cover them.

He obeyed Cas’ voice automatically.

Don’t look. Whatever happens, don’t look.

And the screaming started again.

He couldn’t make out any other noise, but he felt the cold replaced by a burning heat, growing worse and worse until it felt like the flesh was melting off his bones, and he screamed, or maybe he didn’t, he couldn’t say, it hurt, it hurt like it had when he had been in Hell, and –

_Think of the burn you got a few weeks back, think of Cas putting cream on it, think of Cas, period –_

Somehow, he made it.

And then it was over.

The air felt normal again, the screams were gone.

Dean opened his eyes.

So were the figures.

He drove on.

After not a mile, but about a kilometre, if he was right about these foreign measurements, he arrived at a dead end.

There was nothing left to do but stop the car.

He took a deep breath.

What was he supposed to do now?

And then he remembered something else Sam had said.

_I think it is about want. Desire. Need._

There was something Dean needed above all others.

The question was whether he could admit it to himself long enough to get out of here.

He closed his eyes and breathed.

And thought about who’d been there with him, in spirit if not in the flesh, the whole time.

_Cas._

_He wanted Cas._

_He needed Cas._

_He loved Cas._

He opened his eyes.

And looked down the road he’d just driven down.

He was back at the beginning.

He smiled and turned the car around.

It was time to return to Cas.

The former angel was pacing up and down in front of the motel, waiting for him.

“Dean!” he exclaimed as he got out of the Impala, “I woke up and you were gone – I was worried – the road – “

“Yeah, I just came from there. Going for a drive might not have been my best idea”.

Or it could have been the very best of his life, looking at Cas; because any doubts he might have had fled out the window through the worry he saw in his eyes.

“Hey”.

He cradled his face in his hands.

“I’m alright. And now I know how it works. That’ll be useful tomorrow”.

“You – you never touch me like that” Cas said quietly. “I thought you only did this to people you want to kiss – “

“You mean like this?”

For someone who’d barely kissed anyone before, Cas was really pretty good at it.

“Dean” he said, their foreheads pressed together, “do you – “

“I want this, Cas. You. Only you. For as long as I –“

“Forever” he breathed, then blushed.

“I want forever, Dean.”

“Alright, then we try our best at forever”.

And forever it should become.

On earth and in Heaven.


End file.
